Scotland played a leading role in the early years of photography.
When, in 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot invented the Calotype process – a method of creating a paper negative from which multiple prints could be made – he took out a patent in England but not in Scotland. As a result, experimentation with the new medium flourished north of the Border.
In 1843, Robert Adamson, a young chemist from St Andrews, where much of the scientific enthusiasm for the new discovery was concentrated, opened the first photographic studio in Edinburgh. He entered into partnership with the painter David Octavius Hill and, over the following years until Adamson’s untimely death in 1848, they produced what are still regarded as some of the greatest photographs ever made.
Through their portraits in particular, Hill and Adamson demonstrated that the camera was not merely a scientific recording instrument but, in the right hands, could become a powerful means of artistic expression.
It was probably through D. O. Hill, who was Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy, that a remarkable collection of works by important pioneering photographers was acquired. These include numerous picturesque views of Edinburgh, studies of Iona by the Scottish doctor Thomas Keith, and images of French medieval monuments by the great French pioneer Gustave Le Gray.
Most of the framed photographs are modern prints, as the original prints are preserved within two spectacular albums gifted to the RSA by Sir Edmund Findlay in 1931.
Most of the framed photographs are modern prints as the originals are bound within two spectacular albums, which were gifted to the RSA by Sir Edmund Findlay in 1931.
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Room 1: Royal Scottish Academicians
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is Scotland’s oldest surviving artist-run institution. Since 1826, more than 500 artists and architects have been elected by their peers as ‘Academicians’, making them central... -
Room 2: The Morton Award for lens-based Media
The Morton Award for Lens-based Media occupies a vital place in contemporary Scottish photography. Administered by the Royal Scottish Academy and funded by The Morton Charitable Trust, from 2006 to... -
Room 3: The John Kinross Scholarship
Each year the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) John Kinross Scholarship provides ten final year undergraduate and postgraduate art and architecture students with the opportunity to research and develop their practice... -
Room 4: Portraits of Academicians
James Good Tunny (1820–1887) was a professional photographer who established a thriving business in Edinburgh during the 1850s. He recalled that, as a young man in the 1840s, he would... -
Room 5: Armoury
The photographs in this room are reproduced from a remarkable album in the library of the RSA. Around 1850, the British photographer Charles Clifford established a studio in Spain. His... -
Caroline Douglas
Caroline Douglas is an artist and historian of early photography . In her practice she moves across photography, writing and creative archival research to work cross-historically, re-touching the archive, to... -
Irvine & Spence
Disproportionate Impacts & Everyday Agitations This collaborative work from Irvine & Spence was the winner of the RSA Lens-Based Media Award 2024. This was an interim award between the Morton... -
Walter Dalkeith
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Restoration Yard
This gallery space introduces the diverse photographic practice by 19th century and contemporary photographers as part of the wider exhibition at Dalkeith Palace. It features an accessible version of Flannery...
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